


Late Night Confessions

by Lady_Phenyx



Series: Fluffvember 2019 [11]
Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Found Family, Gen, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-29 00:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Phenyx/pseuds/Lady_Phenyx
Summary: Ninny wakes from a nightmare about her aunt and ends up having late night tea, snacks, and an important conversation with Snufkin and Little My that she didn't know she needed to hear.Fluffvember Day 11: "We may not be related, but we're still family."
Series: Fluffvember 2019 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533602
Comments: 8
Kudos: 88





	Late Night Confessions

Ninny woke with a start, motionless in bed, terrified to make a noise.

Her aunt would hear her, she'd come in, she'd...

As Ninny came the rest of the way awake, the room she was in came into view, dimly lit by the moonlight through the curtains as her eyes came into focus.

No grey, primly patterned wallpaper, stiff furniture, dark, dark room.

Ninny sat up with a start, rubbing at her face, and looked around properly.

Soft window seat, with ruffled curtains. Purple paint on the walls, that Mymble had helped her pick out, she and Mymble and Too-Ticky together painting the walls, getting paint everywhere and giggling so hard it was a miracle the walls had any color at all. The books Ninny had chosen or been gifted, clothing peeking out of the wardrobe that she had chosen, toys and gifts and small things she had found and brought home.

She was in her room at Mymble's. She never had to see her aunt again.

Ninny flung back the patchwork quilt, padding to the mirror across the room. She held up her hands, touched her face, squished her cheeks.

Still there. Still visible.

Swallowing, she lifted the hem of her nightgown and checked her feet.

Ten toes wiggled in the thick carpet, visible and solid. Pulling at the neck of her nightgown, she looked down at her chest over her heart, and found it, too, solid and visible.

Ninny sank down onto the window seat in relief.

Invisibility started either at the heart or the extremities, and she was fine. Fully visible and solid.

She hadn't been, in her dream. Her aunt had found her, had found someone to help force her to return to her care, and she'd been going invisible again.

Standing, Ninny slipped into the robe she'd been given, tying the belt as she headed for the kitchen.

She wasn't going to get back to sleep after that scare, and Mymble had said that this was one of her homes now, so...

it would surely be all right if she made herself a cup of something hot.

\---XXX---

The back door was open, and Ninny stopped in the kitchen door, looking at it anxiously.

A shadow moved on the back steps, and she suppressed a squeak, hiding behind the door. What should she do? Should she go for the frying pan, just out of reach? Run to wake Mymble?

Snufkin stepped inside, and Ninny relaxed in inches, watching as he silently moved to the stove, taking the kettle over to the sink.

“I know you're there,” he said softly. “I saw your light come on.”

Ninny slipped from behind the door, pressing her back against it and biting her lip. She had barely spent time one on one with Snufkin, and though she liked him quite a bit, she still found herself tongue tied around him quite often.

Snufkin was digging in the cupboard, the kettle filling. He paused to put it on the stove top and went back to digging, pulling out a canister.

“Here. Night time blend. This will help. Do you want to talk about it?”

Ninny thought for a moment, chewing on the end of the ribbon at the neck of her nightgown. Another thing her aunt would have hated.

“I...dreamed my aunt came and made me go with her,” she said. “And I went invisible again, but this time no one knew to come help me.”

“Ha! I'd like to see her try,” Little My's voice sounded out, and her head popped out of the cookie jar on the counter. Ninny started before giving Little My a glare. “There, see, you can stand up to your aunt now!”

Snufkin chuckled softly as he leaned against the counter. “What Little My means is that you're loved here, and even if she managed, we'd come and get you. But you might not need help anymore.”

Ninny fidgeted with the ribbon again. “It's not just that, it's...oh, no one would understand.”

“About being invisible?” Snufkin asked. The kettle began to make noise that said it was on the edge of boiling, and Snufkin turned to fill the mugs with tea. “Little My, this conversation needs a blanket fort.”

Little My nodded with a little “hm!” and leapt from the oversized cookie jar – one Ninny suspected Mymble had specifically for her sister to hide in – and zoomed off. Soft noises came from the living room as Snufkin assembled tray and mugs, debating a moment before adding a few cookies.

He smiled as he saw Ninny eying them. “Moominmamma says nightmares that get someone out of bed need cookies, no matter what time it is.”

Ninny nodded, hoping she looked as wise as Snufkin. “Moominmamma is very wise.”

“She is, indeed.”

Snufkin carried the tray into the living room, and Ninny followed, her jaw dropping at the blanket fort Little My had already gotten half set up.

Snufkin set down the tray on the coffee table to help Little My with the last blanket before ducking inside, pulling the tray in after.

“Well? Come on,” Little My said, disappearing after her brother.

Ninny ducked in cautiously. It was small inside, and better lit than she'd thought. Little My had found pillows from all over to cushion the inside, and they were all crammed in together.

She didn't want to tell them it was her first blanket fort, but she had a suspicion they already knew that.

There was a brief pause as all three blew on their tea.

“I was invisible,” Snufkin said abruptly.

Ninny nearly fumbled her mug, her head whipping up to stare at Snufkin.

“You never!” she gasped, one hand snapping up to cover her mouth as soon as the words escaped.

“It was a long time ago,” Snufkin said calmly. “I only told the others when I had to. Because when I came back, my tail and paws didn't. It wasn't until I'd been coming to Moomin Valley for years, after I was sure of my place here, that it was a safe harbor and not an anchor, that they came back.”

“He had to spill then,” Little My said, sounding put out. “When one day he had a tail when he hadn't the day before. Couldn't hide that with gloves.”

Snufkin sipped at his tea, pretending indifference.

Ninny glanced down involuntarily, and caught sight of Snufkin's tail, the tip of which was twitching, slowly and gently. It looked soft and thick and fluffy and she had an automatic urge to touch it as see if it was as soft as it felt, once she surpressed.

“You were going to pretend like nothing ever happened,” Little My said, and it had the sound to it of an argument they'd had before.

“But how could...I mean...” Ninny faltered, covering her mouth again. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't ask. It's just, you always seem so at ease with yourself. Like you know just who you are and are happy with that. So it's hard to think of you as being invisible.”

Snufkin shrugged. “There are many things that can turn someone invisible, and many things that can bring them back, though listening is the only one that really works in the long run. It's part of who I am, now. I was upset about it once, but not any more. What really matters is, there is someone here who understands.”

Little My suddenly giggled, just a touch mocking, in the way she often was when she thought about one of them and something she could tease them over. “I thought Moomin would have a heart attack when he saw your paws without gloves for the first time.” She clasped her hands to her cheeks, her eyes going wide, mimicking what had surely been the starry eyed expression Moomin had had. “You have _little paw pads!_” she squealed, mimicking Moomin's response.

Ninny looked at Snufkin in confusion. He rolled his eyes, flushing the faintest at Little My's teasing, and pulled off a glove.

“I got used to wearing them, so I'm slowly stopping,” he said when Ninny eyed it. “It got to where I didn't feel dressed without them. But I don't want to wear them anymore, either.” He held out the paw, palm up, and Ninny could feel the stars in her eyes, and guessed she looked just a bit as smitten as Moomin had.

His paw was furred, the same color as his hair, short, soft looking fur, and there were little pads on each finger and a larger one on the palm.

“Do...do you have toe beans, too?” The question slipped out before Ninny realized she'd thought it, and Little My giggled harder.

“He does,” she confided.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked,” Ninny apologized anyway.

Snufkin shrugged. “I'm used to my sisters asking questions. Sisters do that.”

It took a moment for what he said to sink in. The words themselves sounded as if they referred just to Little My or Mymble, but something about the way he said them...

“You...sister?” Ninny asked, tiny and quiet. “...did you just put me in with your sisters?”

Snufkin paused with his mug poised to take a sip, as did Little My, both of them looking at Ninny from the corner of their eye.

Finally, Snufkin spoke. “I said what I said. Would it bother you, being our little sister?”

Ninny very carefully put her tea mug down, out of the way, before flinging herself at Snufkin, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. She nearly knocked him over with the force of her hug, and his free arm wrapped around her shoulders after he'd regained his balance.

“You may not be related to us by blood, but you're family,” he told her softly. “You're as much my little sister as Little My is Moomin's big sister. Don't deny it Little My, you treat him like a little brother just like you do me.”

Ninny clung a little closer, breathing deeply of Snufkin's scent. He smelled a little of the clean wind outdoors, and the strange stuff he smoked sometimes in his pipe, of outdoors and a bit musky.

She heard him set down his mug, and the freed hand came to stroke her hair.

“Let's get more comfortable,” he said after a minute. “I need to take my boots off. Smock, too.”

Ninny sat back, taking a moment to compose herself as Snufkin took off his boots and wiggled out of his smock, while Little My removed her boots.

After glancing at Ninny, Snufkin chuckled softly and pulled off his socks as well, letting her get a good view of his feet.

Ninny bit back the gasp of delight. Toe beans! Just like Little My had said! And paw pads on the ball of his foot and the heel, with fur just like the fur on his hands covering his feet and traveling up his legs.

Snufkin wiggled his toes, laughing softly. “The fur goes to my knees and elbows,” he confessed. “Finding out about it before I knew about my father was a trip.”

Little My clambered across the pillow fort and her brother, squirming down into the space between his arm and body and wiggling around until she was comfortable, immediately curling up for sleep.

Snufkin held out his free arm to Ninny. “Would you rather sleep over there, or over here? Sometimes it helps to have other people around after a nightmare, but sometimes you just want left alone to think it over and recharge.”

Ninny hesitated before crawling over to Snufkin. He was warmer than she'd expected, and she could hear his heart beating steadily under her ear when she laid her head down on his chest.

His arm draped lightly across her back, comforting without being restricting. After a moment his tail curled around her side, almost like an extra arm comforting her. Slowly she reached down and ran her fingertips along it, feeling the thick softness, even better than she'd though. His arm squeezed lightly, reassuring.

It was still a little new to Ninny even after all this time, this feeling of comfort, that she could go to someone and have them listen to her fears and not dismiss them, hear her out and talk them through.

She'd never dared to think of having them as siblings...especially not Snufkin.

Ninny had always wondered what it would be like to have siblings. Would she have gone invisible if she'd had siblings around?

Well, with these ones, Ninny was sure deep in her heart she'd never have to worry about it again.

\---XXX---

Mymble found them in the blanket fort the next morning, and quietly dug out her own camera – a newer model than the one Moominpappa owned – for a picture of her baby brother asleep, with Ninny curled up on him on one side, Little My against his other shoulder and his arms around them both.

Too-Ticky needed to see this.

She would later frame the picture for one of her pride-of-place arrangements on the wall, in the center of her family pictures that she loved the most.


End file.
